Nueces Co. Appraisal District saga is getting richer

CORPUS CHRISTI - The state of Texas is looking at an $18 billion budget shortfall. Corpus Christi city departments are preparing budget scenarios with cuts as deep as 30 percent. School Superintendent Scott Elliff has declared now the time to recalibrate because there'll be no increase in state funding of schools next year.

We know there's a train wreck coming ..., Elliff said Monday at a budget workshop.

Are you listening, Nueces County Appraisal District staff?

The appraisal districts staff has proposed a nearly $1 million budget increase, mostly to upgrade its downtown headquarters. That's a 15 percent jump.

Consider the timing of this request: a down economy, an estimated 1.5 percent drop in property values inside the city limits, pay cuts and job losses in the private sector, and foreclosures.

There's also the matter of the new-building debacle from the last budget cycle. Remember, the appraisal district had to refund the bulk of $2.8 million it had accumulated in a building fund, from surpluses captured from five years of padded budgets. Instead of explicitly pointing out to the member taxing entities that they were entitled to refunds from the overages, the district found a letter-but-not-spirit-of-the-law manner to meet the obligation of informing the entities without their realizing they had been informed, by burying it under a paperwork mountain. (Reporting by Sara Foley of the Caller-Times alerted the taxing entities and soon after they sought the refunds.)

Now the plan is to add 15 percent to a previously padded budget to fix up the headquarters that the staff had hoped to unload while moving into a new building.

Were sure the staff will have a worthy explanation at an appraisal board meeting at 5:30 p.m. today. This certainty is an article of faith because the appraisal district hasn't fulfilled a Caller-Times request for recent building committee reports.

That 15 percent hike, by the way, will have to come from the folks who are trying to figure out which of our city services to cut, how much to raise our taxes and fees, and how to recalibrate our children's educations.